The Great American Economic Lie

[FarCenter]

The idea that the economy has grown at roughly 5% since 1980 is a lie.

In reality the economic growth of the U.S. has been declining rapidly over the past 30 years supported only by a massive push into deficit spending.

Read more: http://www.streettalklive.com/daily-x-change/310.html

Happy days will not return for a long, long time.

[ixion]

1. k/r (rec to 0)

[Fumesucker]

2. Recced up to zero or some negative number

Someone doesn't like this story evidently.

[Octafish]

3. If Uncle Sam wanted to, they'd be here lickety-split.

Most of the wealth created in human history has been accumulated in the last 30 years. And its in the pockets of the plutocrats who've bought the government, lock, stock and barrel.

[sam11111]

4. nice Summary wanted here on DU. Those scarred by malware dont follow links Thanx

Nt

[mistertrickster]

5. This is an Austrian-economic view. They are Voodoo economists.

As Scientology is to Psychology, so is the Austrian school to Economics.

[whosinpower]

6. Oh puleeze

give it a rest.

Here is a story to ponder.....

Let's say there is a community burdened by debt. The hotelier owes the liquor vendor 100 dollars, and the liquor vendor owes the butcher 100 dollars, and the butcher owes the farmer 100 dollars and the farmer owes the gas man 100 dollars, and the gasman owes his staff guy 100 dollars and the staff guy owes the prostitute 100 dollars and the prostitute owes the hotelier 100 dollars.

No goes near the place because it is 700 dollars deep in debt.

A stranger comes by - a government agent who is looking to help the burdened community and sets 100 dollars on the hotelier's desk to hold a room while he goes up to check on the room.
So excited is the hotelier, that he immediately runs to the liquor vendor to pay his debt, and the liquor vendor goes to the butcher to erase his debt, and the butcher goes to the farmer and gives him his 100 dollars to erase the debt. The farmer eagerly phones the gasman and the gasman sends his staff over telling him that is his back salary. The staff guy rushes to pay off his debt to the prostitute....who hands back the very same 100 dollars to the hotelier.

The government guy comes down from the room and takes back his 100 dollars because the room was insufficient.......and the community is suddenly debt free.

Full of newfound optimism, AND CONFIDENCE IN EACH OTHER, the community prospers debt free.

[FarCenter]

7. You left out the interest payments n/t

[girl gone mad]

8. The good news is that we have a sovereign fiat currency.

We can create interest-free money.

[FarCenter]

9. True, you can create inflation to reduce the value of debt

But that also reduces the value of financial assets and only owners of real assets benefit in the long run.

[girl gone mad]

12. We can put a lot of money into the economy before inflation becomes an issue.

Right now we've got high unemployment and significantly underutilized productive capacity. This is the time to invest and put people back to work, keep our technology and infrastructure up to date, make sure our young people get the work experience they need and prevent our economy from shrinking. The absolute worst thing we can do is to let the economy wither by refusing to spend based on idiotic fears and bad ideological assumptions.

Once inflation kicks in, raise taxes to take some of the money back out of the economy.

[whosinpower]

10. It was purposeful

Mr. Hotelier did go to see Mr. Banker - but Mr. Banker refused to loan him the 100 dollars because they no longer served main street interests. Mr. Banker felt he could maximize profits by getting an interest free loan from Mr. Government - and then take that money and sell it back to Mr. Government in the form of treasuries, which is a sure thing as long as Mr. Government exists. Sad, but true.

[scheming daemons]

13. That only works if interest rates on all of those "loans" was 0%

[whosinpower]

15. See my reply above

Mr. Banker was not interested in loaning the 100 dollars to Mr. Hotelier. He figures Mr. Hotelier and the community is a BAD RISK. So - he took the free money that Mr. Government gave him - and sold it right back to Mr. Government's treasuries....giving himself a guarenteed return.

[mmonk]

11. Deficit spending? The language of the right. How about tax cuts?

Overly high military spending and wars?

[Odin2005]

14. Consumerist Corporate Capitalism had destroyed this country.

[truedelphi]

16. And in any given year - 28% or more of

The profits go to large Financial Firms.

The moronic "hoosing bubble" has been replaced by a more insidious one: the bank buying bubble.

At least during the housing bubble, ordinary people could flip houses.

Not often a middle class person can flip some banks!

But when the housing bubble failed, the last ones in on the deal ended up on the streets.

When the banks fail, our government just bails them out.